Abstract
THE results obtained by Diggle and Saxon1 on a Homosteus plate from Clardon Haven, Thurso, do not, as they suggest, differ in any significant way from those published previously by Atkin and myself2. We showed that “whereas both uranium and thorium form organic complexes or compounds with hydrocarbon, only uranium is fixed by bone apatite”. This means that a radioactive fish plate without much associated hydrocarbon would have a higher ratio of uranium : thorium than one with abundant hydrocarbon. Thus if the plate studied by Diggle and Saxon was mainly composed of bone apatite the bulk of the radioactivity would be attributable to uranium.
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References
Diggle, W. R., and Saxon, J., Nature, 208, 400 (1965).
Bowie, S. H. U., and Atkin, D., Nature, 177, 487 (1956).
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BOWIE, S. An Unusually Radioactive Fossil Fish from Thurso, Scotland. Nature 211, 728–729 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/211728b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/211728b0
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